Junior College, Santa Rosa, CA

The Junior College neighborhood is named for the 100-acre Santa Rosa Junior College campus that sits inside it, ivy-covered buildings, a planetarium, and all. It is one of the leafiest, most established near-downtown neighborhoods in the city, and the grand McDonald Avenue mansion district borders it to the east, so on the right blocks you are walking past early-century Queen Annes and Italianates that rarely come to market. Day to day, this is one of the more walkable parts of Santa Rosa. Mendocino Avenue carries CityBus lines and a string of restaurants like Bird and the Bottle, small parks dot the area, downtown is immediately south, and Coddingtown's stores sit just to the northwest. Housing ranges from those stately historic homes to Craftsman bungalows and midcentury ranches. The honest read is that this is a college neighborhood, so a majority of residents rent and the streets fill with student parking and turnover near campus. Block to block the feel shifts more than the data suggests, from quiet historic to busy and transient. For buyers who want walkable, central, and full of character, the upside is real.